Thunder Wolves – Review

Bad: Generic visuals, lack of ammo can sometimes mean a lack of excitement.

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I hadn’t played a decent aerial shooter in ages. It’s true; I think the last time I got my hands on some three-dimensional, air-based combat was when I pulled Fireblade out of my local retailer’s discount bin.

Imagine how delighted I was, then, when Thunder Wolves landed in my lap, a worthwhile attempt at bringing no-nonsense helicopter fights to the current generation of consoles.

Story

Keep your expectations low, Thunder Wolves doesn’t really care about its own story. Sure, some badass villain called The Serpent might be stirring up some trouble in the Middle East, but that’s about as far as the story goes.

You play as Max, a cynical veteran who’s stuck with a rookie pilot he lovingly nicknames Blister. The two of them are part of a mercenary group and are constantly bickering and shouting while ‘setting things right.’ Which roughly translates into blowing up everything.

I mentioned Max and his co-pilot reducing everything not on their protection list to rubble, but don’t expect the resulting explosions to, ahum, blow you away.

While plentiful, the action doesn’t really stand out, instead explosions tend to stay compact enough as to complement general visibility. Clearly a case of quantity over quality.

That said, Thunder Wolves’ visuals won’t stun you. The terrain and models are all decent, but never as detailed as they could be. Combine that fact with ground troops that are represented by a black moving dot and a red triangle or rectangle indicating their positions, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve all seen it many times before.

Sound

It’s mainly heavy metal and hard rock that’s blasting through your speakers. Anyone who expected otherwise for a game based on aerial combat should re-watch twenty years worth of war movies.

An honorable mention goes to the voiceovers. Max is constantly pestering his rookie protégé, who in turn weakly responds with attempts at witty comebacks. Their constant bantering will no doubt bring a smile to your face. It even manages to bring the hundreds of firefights to life, creating combat that’s not only fun to watch, but doesn’t disappoint when it comes to its audio either.

Gameplay

There are thirteen missions, most of which take place in the Middle East, although a few of them offer some flashbacks to Max’s past in South America.

Don’t expect much diversity, most of the time you’re flying around destroying on-ground targets while avoiding other helicopters, eventually turning even those into smoldering pieces of scrap metal.

The combat can get hectic, especially in wide, open area’s, where any cover is quickly destroyed by crossfire that erupts from every possible angle. You’ll have to stay on your toes if you want to stay alive while also racking up a decent score.

Yes, that’s what this game is all about; high scores. An arcade game at heart, Thunder Wolves will appeal the most to those who aim to improve themselves at every turn.

Which brings us to the one, glaring problem with Thunder Wolves; there’s no ammo. Instead your gun never runs out and your rockets -three types in total- are all on a different recharge timer, offering an essentially unlimited array of weapons of mass destruction.

While this may sound appealing, in reality retracting any form of ammo also takes away part of the difficulty and excitement. After all, why play smart, if all you have to do is keep your finger down to shoot?

Aside from a distinct lack of real difficulty, resulting from the utter absence of bullets, the game performs well enough to fill up at least one rainy afternoon. If anything, the constant -and marvelous- interaction between Max and ‘Blister’ will conjure up a constant grin.